The present invention relates to a floating water purification free-running apparatus and method of causing a water purification apparatus designed to move on water and mounted on a floating structure to travel on water areas such as rivers, streams, ponds, and marshes by effectively using drain pressure energy or air-water mixture injection pressure energy obtained after water purification.
In water areas such as rivers, streams, ponds, and marshes, suspended solids tend to be generated in areas where water scarcely runs, resulting in a deterioration in water quality. Conventionally, in such a water area, a water purification apparatus is fixed to the periphery of the area to practice a water purification method of forcibly causing convection of surface water and bottom water by an aeration process, a circulating pump, and the like.
A conventional circulatory water purification apparatus will be described below with reference to FIG. 11. As shown in FIG. 11, a water purification apparatus 82 purifies the water drawn up from the surface layer of a water area 1 by a lift pump 81 fixed to the shore of the water area 1 to obtain purified water, and the purified water is supplied, through a long water supply pipe 83 laid on the bottom of the water, to a floating structure 80 fixed in a purification target water area of the water area 1 (to which the purified water is to be supplied) with a mooring unit 84.
The purified water is pressurized by a pump 85 to inject a fountain of water 87 through a fountain unit 86 on the floating structure 80 to increase the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water in the water area 1 around the floating structure 80. When this apparatus is used, the water area where water purification can be performed is expanded by increasing the length of the water supply pipe 83 or the capacity of the lift pump 81.
According to the conventional water purification apparatus 82, however, since the apparatus 82 is fixed, increases in the length of the water supply pipe 83 and the capacity of the lift pump 81 lead to an increase in apparatus size. This increases the total cost including equipment investment, maintenance cost, and the like.
In addition, since this apparatus is essentially an apparatus designed to consume large amount of electric power, an increase in power consumption with the above increase in apparatus size inevitably demands facilities that can supply a large amount of electric power, and the driving power supply to be used is limited to one with a large size. For this reason, it is difficult to use a solar cell that is a clean power supply as a driving power supply because of its low energy density per unit area. This hinders the effective use of clean energy.
Furthermore, since the conventional water purification apparatus is of a stationary type, only the peripheral area of a predetermined target water area can be expanded, but the water area where water purification can be performed cannot be moved. For this reason, this apparatus is not suitable for water purification throughout a large water area. Conventionally, water purification is performed in only a predetermined water area where water purification can be performed, but no water purification is performed in other water areas. To perform water purification in other water areas, additional apparatuses must be installed.
Moreover, this apparatus cannot flexibly cope with the generation of a local water area whose water quality has accidentally deteriorated owing to the influence of wind, a change in water temperature, an artificial factor, or the like.